The Niger State Government on Tuesday took delivery of 700 boar goats, 72 young South African cattle, as well as doper indigenous South African sheep that will adapt to the dry climate of the northern part of Nigeria.
The state Commissioner for Livestocks and Fisheries, Dr. Yahaya Vatsa, said an approval was granted to procure some cattle, goats and sheep in an effort to improve on the livestocks sub sector in Niger State.
While taking the delivery of the animals from the South African supplier and Veterinary Doctor, Dr. Herman de Bruin, at Tagwai Dam, near Tunga Goro, close to Minna, the state capital on Tuesday, Vatsa said: “These animals arrived in Minna from South Africa and we are the first in the history of this country to import these animals to improve on our local breeds.”
He added that presently, the state has 700 of the goats and sheep and 72 of the cattle of different species.
They can survive in the state’s environment as well as in other northern parts of the country.
Speaking further, Vatsa said: “The importers had made provision for likelihood of any mortality replacement because the state government was keen at making sure that these animals get across to all nooks and crannies of Niger State, with the view that people can breed them in order to multiply so that it would eventually improve on the already existing local breeds in the state.
“The animals would be sold to interested buyers from the state at subsidised rates and at the cost price it was obtained in Southern Africa, while the government will not charge the buyers extra fees like the transport or Customs duty and other charges that were accrued to the importation of the young animals into the country.
“A team of Veterinary Doctors will closely monitor them for any form of care or diseases that might come up.
“These animals have been immunized against common and dangerous diseases we have in our environment. likewise the diseases that are common in South Africa because they have been immunized against them.”
Vatsa also stated that the state’s Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock has in its custody some healthy animals but all the imported animals lived within the temperature range that is obtainable in the state and in Southern Africa and therefore assured that they would survive in Nigeria too.
Bruin put the ages of the cattle at between 14 months and 16 months while the goats and sheep are about eight weeks old.
He said: “They will survive very well here because they are coming from the far Western part of South Africa, which is as hot and very dry as it is here and they were brought up from the same type of condition here.”
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